Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

HAIRY GRAMA

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Bouteloua hirsuta

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 6 to 28 inches

Family: Poaceae - Grass Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August

Culms:

Erect to somewhat bent below, solid, glabrous, leafy at bases.

Blades:

Numerous, flat, slender, 1 to 7 inches long, less than 1/10 inch wide, erect or ascending, rough or glabrous; lower margins with hairs arising from tiny bumps.

Sheaths:

Glabrous or finely hairy, bearing long soft hairs near ligule.

Ligules:

Short fringes of hairs.

Inflorescences:

Panicles; branches 1 to 4, .5 1.5 inches long, occasionally curved; rachis extending conspicuously beyond spikelets in obvious point.

Spikelets:

18-50 per branch, .25 inch long, crowded in 2 rows; florets 1 perfect, 2 sterile; glumes unequal, tipped with blackish awns, second glume hairy; fertile lemma deeply 3-cleft, hairy, 3 short awns, central awn longest.

Habitat:

Prairies or pastures, on dry, shallow, sandy or rocky sites.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas

Forage Value:

Hairy grama is nutritious for livestock and has high palatability late in the growing season.

Comments:

Hairy grama grows in tufts but does not occur in large stands.

Hairy grama can be distinguished from blue grama by the needle-like rachis that projects beyond the spikelet-bearing portion of the branch.

Hairy grama inflorescence